Dukes Land QB Atkins For '21 Class
The track record was attractive enough to help Mount St. Joseph (Baltimore) quarterback Billy Atkins settle confidently on his decision.
Atkins joined James Madison’s 2021 recruiting class this past Thursday when he announced his commitment to the school via Twitter.
“[JMU offensive coordinator] Shane Montgomery is very accomplished as a coach,” Atkins told the Daily News-Record on Sunday.
Dukes offensive line coach Damian Wroblewski was the lead recruiter on Atkins, he said. But Montgomery, Atkins’ future position coach, and the quarterback often spoke through Zoom leading up to the verbal pledge.
“He coached great players like Big Ben [Roethlisberger] and the truth is I’m a big Steelers fan, believe it or not,” Atkins said, “so the opportunity to be coached by a guy who is as accomplished as [Montgomery] is intriguing to me.”
Montgomery was the offensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio) – before becoming the RedHawks head coach – when Roethlisberger was the quarterback there.
More recently, former JMU quarterback Ben DiNucci thrived in his lone season under Dukes coach Curt Cignetti and Montgomery, becoming the Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year last fall and a seventh-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys last month.
“I like how Coach Montgomery puts that strain on the quarterback to be intelligent and make plays with his arm,” Atkins said. “Ben DiNucci did a great job, and Coach Montgomery did a great job of getting Ben going in his offense, and that was only in one year, so God knows how far I can go in four years with him. So that’s pretty exciting.”
The 6-foot-1½, 190-pound signal-caller said he earned 15 total scholarship offers by the time he was ready to commit to JMU. Six other CAA programs – Delaware, Rhode Island, Richmond, Stony Brook, Towson and William & Mary – offered Atkins, and he gained an FBS opportunity from Buffalo.
As a junior, Atkins threw for 3,089 yards and 36 touchdowns, and won a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A Championship with Mount St. Joseph.
“JMU has been the dream school for me and I told Coach Montgomery that before they offered me,” Atkins said. “I said to him, ‘JMU is the dream school for me, and if you guys offer me, I’ll probably commit.’”
Atkins said Wroblewski visited him at Mount St. Joseph before the coronavirus pandemic shut schools down and halted all in-person recruiting visits. After that, according to the quarterback, all communication was over the phone or through Zoom to build strong bonds with both Wroblewski and Montgomery.
“It was a little tougher,” Atkins said. “I had a JMU visit scheduled for the end of the April, but I canceled it because of COVID. But that was tough to figure out how to go to campus and things like that, and it was different because the Zoom sessions and virtual tours were used to see what the campus had to offer. Pre-COVID recruiting you’d go up there, have a visit and be on campus and in person, so it was different.”
In addition, Atkins said he took an off-the-cuff drive to Harrisonburg last Sunday to see the campus informally.
Atkins’ commitment began a run of verbal pledges that haven’t slowed down for the Dukes as JMU has picked up four in as many days.
On Friday, Battlefield (Haymarket) linebacker Matt Binkowski committed to JMU and on Saturday, Northside (Roanoke) tight end Zach Horton followed. Then on Sunday, Statesville (Statesville, N.C.) wide receiver Jasaiah Gathings joined the group.
“I hope we can win championships back to back,” Atkins said, “and that’s where I am in my football career. I did in high school, so I’m hoping I can do it in college and win multiple national championships for James Madison. That’s how I am as a person, and I want to be the best player I can be. I’m sure at James Madison that’s the standard.”